Along with spread of a wireless LAN, there have been increasing environments where the wireless LAN is available at home and outdoors. In addition, due to spread of wireless terminals such as a smartphone and a tablet terminal, there are increasing opportunities in which even people who do not know much about an information device use a wireless LAN. When using a wireless LAN, it is necessary to assign a wireless terminal being a slave unit to an access point (repeater) being a master unit. To this end, a user of the wireless terminal needs to manually input a service set identifier (SSID) which is an identification name of the access point, and a password. However, this input work requires a certain degree of knowledge about a wireless LAN, and is troublesome for the user.
Easy connection functions such as a Wi-Fi (registered trademark) protected setup (WPS) function and Rakuraku Wireless Start have been developed as functions that lessen the trouble and thus easily assign the wireless terminal to the access point. For performing wireless connection by using the WPS function, a personal identification number (PIN) code scheme and a push button configuration (PBC) scheme are available.
The PIN code scheme requires input of a PIN code displayed on an equipment main unit of the access point or on a setting screen. The input of this PIN code is troublesome for a user, and may not necessarily be said to be an easy operation especially for a user who is not familiar with the term PIN code and does not know much about an information device.
On the other hand, the PBC scheme and the Rakuraku Wireless Start require buttons provided in both an access point and a wireless terminal to be pushed within a certain period of time. A user needs to find the buttons in the access point and the wireless terminal, respectively, and may fail connection when being unable to start connecting operations in both within a certain period of time, and therefore this is not necessarily an easy operation for a user who does not know much about an information device.
Furthermore, a scheme in which buttons are physically pressed requires an access point and a wireless terminal to be present at near positions. However, an access point that is finished with initial setting is often located in a place not being much touched normally, and an access point is rarely present within reach in a situation where a new wireless terminal is added to an existing wireless LAN. Further, the button pressing scheme is not applicable to a case where a wireless terminal is an extremely small device such as a sensor device and a button is not mountable therein due to a mechanical limitation.
As a method for easily assigning a terminal to an access point, PTLs 1 and 2 disclose a method for assigning an unassigned terminal by using a terminal already assigned to an access point.
In PTL 1, an SSID and an encrypted password of an access point are broadcast from a terminal assigned to the access point, and an unassigned terminal receiving the SSID and the password is assigned to the access point with reference to this information.
Furthermore, in PTL 2, an assigned terminal acquires identification information of an unassigned terminal from the unassigned terminal, acquires initial setting information corresponding to the identification information from an access point, and then distributes the initial setting information to the unassigned terminal. The unassigned terminal is assigned to the access point, based on this initial setting information. At this point, the assigned terminal performs wireless LAN communication with the unassigned terminal. To this end, the assigned terminal is also compliant with an access point mode or an ad hoc mode in addition to a terminal mode as an operation mode of a wireless LAN. PTL 3 also discloses a related art, wherein a terminal has an access point mode and a terminal mode, and one of the modes is suitably set.